The appalling attack at the Manchester Arena last night is currently being treated as a suspected terrorist incident. All our thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones or been injured or traumatised. The police, hospitals, Council and emergency services are doing all they can to support them. As a City we will remain strong and it is more important than ever that our communities continue to support each other.

Our school leadership team will continue to ensure the safety of our children and security of our school building, and will remain vigilant at all times.

We appreciate these terrible events will be distressing for your children and the school community. We will remain open as usual and we appreciate your support in keeping the day as calm and normal as possible for the children.

There is an increased number of police, including armed patrols out in communities following yesterday’s incident. These are general patrols aimed at providing community reassurance and there is no need to be alarmed.

There is no intelligence relating to a threat to schools and GMP are not advising any schools to close.

As we receive further information from the City Council, we will update parents/carers via our website.

Mr Dan Leaver has stepped down as Chair of Governors after fifteen years on the Governing Body. On behalf of all the school community I would like to thank Dan for all the help and support he has provided; leading the school through changes of leadership in 2007 and the move into the new school building. He will continue to serve the school on the Governing Body. Mr Joe Hill has been elected as Chair of Governors. Joe works for the Department for Education (DfE) working on the recruitment campaign to attract new people into teacher training. Being part of the DfE means he keeps up to date with what’s going on in the education world and can bring this knowledge to the governing body. His work also involves a lot of data analysis, which is very useful in understanding and interpreting the many facts and figures that governors see.

Staffing

We are delighted to welcome back Mrs Catherine Doherty (Sunshine Room) and Miss Hannah Cutts (Children and Families Team) who have returned to school following maternity leave. It’s great to see them back in school, we have really missed them.

I am delighted to announce that Miss Aysha Riaz will be getting married during the holidays. We wish her all the very best for the special celebrations.

Unfortunately, I also have to announce that Miss Alisha Al-Hadara will be leaving the school after eight years as teaching assistant at Plymouth Grove to take up a new post in Cheshire. We wish her all the very best for the future.

School Dinners

Unfortunately, due to rising costs we are raising the price of school dinners from £2.20 per day (£11.00 a week) to £2.30 a day (£11.50 a week) from the 9th January. It is the first time we have raised the price for over 5 years. We are still providing the fruit snack at break time free of charge.

Robotic club

The lego robotics club have had a great term. On the 5th December, they attended the first lego league competition. This involved seven Year 5 children designing and building a robot that could carry out tasks and designing and presenting a new invention to a panel of judges. The children performed excellently and won the prize for the best invention presentation; thoroughly deserved after many hours of hard work and commitment. The club was kindly sponsored by MAP engineers, The James Dyson Foundation and Siemens. Their kind donations paid for the transport and equipment needed for the tournament.

Children in Need

Thank you for everyone’s contribution towards Children in Need. We managed to raise £380.

After School Clubs

I would like thank all staff who have given their time to provide additional opportunities for children. This term children have enjoyed after school clubs for taekwondo, robotics, homework, football, gymnastics, drama, choir, craft and Debate Mate.

Nativity

The children in Years 1 and 2 have been very busy rehearsing for this year’s Christmas nativity, ‘Hey Ewe’. The children have been learning lines and singing lots of songs in preparation for the show and they are very excited to perform to an audience.

You are invited to watch one of the performances on Monday 19th December at 2pm and Tuesday 20th December at 9.30am.The show will last approximately 30 minutes.

Christmas Parties

During the final week the children will have a Christmas Party and will be able to wear party clothes. We kindly request a donation of £1 towards the cost of refreshments. The parties will be on the following days:

Monday 19th December Nursery

Tuesday 20th December Reception and Year 5

Wednesday 21st December Nursery, Year 3 and Year 6

Thursday 22nd December Year 1, Year 2 and Year 4

School will close at normal time on Thursday 22nd December and will re-open on Monday 9th January at 8.50am

I would like to wish all members of our school community a Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Plymouth Grove Primary School has been awarded an amazing 97% in their recent catering audit.

Congratulations to Jane Mills, Catering Manager and her team who work extremely hard to provide an excellent standard of food with a good variety of dishes.

What the auditor had to say:

‘Many thanks for the warm welcome on my visit today; it was a pleasure to complete the audit with a very professional Catering Manager and her team. This is a very well run kitchen and deserves the 5 rating from the Environmental Health.

Customer care is excellent with good interaction with the children. There is a really pleasant atmosphere at the service counter. It is particularly good to see the system in place for pupil’s allergy and intolerances, very simple, but very effective.

There is an excellent standard of food with a good variety of dishes and well presented on the service counter. The menu is varied, with a good selection of healthy options. It is good to see that fruit is offered every day and “pudding/cake” desserts are only offered on a Friday as a treat.

Well done Plymouth Grove keep up the hard work!’

On behalf of myself, all the staff and The Governing Body here at Plymouth Grove we would like to express our thanks to Jane and her team for their professionalism and dedication. Thank you!!

The school term comes to a close on Friday 21st October and I would like to thank all the children, parents and staff who have made the transition into our new schools so successful. During Parents’ evening on the 8th, 9th and 10th November you will have the opportunity to view our new facilities.

As well as welcoming 46 children into our nursery; we are also delighted that 14 children have joined our reception classes, 6 pupils have joined us in Year 1 and Year 2 and 9 pupils have joined us in Years 3, 4, 5 and 6.

We have enjoyed a great start to the school year. Year 5 enjoyed a great trip to Longendale in the Peak District. The classes enjoyed learning about rivers and their features. They even got the chance to go in the river and perform some experiments.

Five members of our successful debating team were invited to showcase their skills at breakfast event for supporters of the Debate Mate Charity in Spinningfields. Once again, they demonstrated their exceptional skills in front of an audience of 100 businesses.

This week, 50 of our Year 6 children are enjoying a residential visit to Robinwood in the Lake District. We look forward to hearing their tales of adventure when they return on Friday.

Members of Plymouth Grove Parliament

The children have now elected 12 of their peers to be Members of Plymouth Grove Parliament. They are attending weekly meetings led by Miss Thompson to provide valuable feedback on how we can continue to improve the school.

New School Governor

We would like to warmly welcome Mr Ahmed Hussain onto the school’s governing body as a parent governor. All our governors are volunteers and we fully appreciate the time they provide to continue to improve our school. Details of the work of the governing body can be found on the governor section of our website.

Trainee teachers in Year 4 and Year 5

Next half term we welcome Ms Ortiz (5H) Mrs Davies (4S) and Miss Faulkner (4B). They are trainee teachers from Manchester University completing their first teaching practice at Plymouth Grove. We enjoy a highly successful partnership with Manchester University with over a quarter of our teachers being graduates from this course.

Reading Books

We have managed to recover over 200 reading books that parents have found at home. Please can I urge all parents to look carefully for any books that belong to school so that we can continue to provide the children with the choice and variety to enjoy their reading.

After School Clubs

I would like thank all staff who have given their time to provide additional opportunities for children. This term children have enjoyed after school clubs for taekwondo, robotics, homework, football, gymnastics, drama, choir and craft.

Harvest Festival

Thank you to all the parents who contributed to our Harvest Festival this year. We were overwhelmed by the number of donations and they have all been passed onto the Wood Street Mission.

We are really looking forward to welcoming all the children back into their new school on Monday. Year 1 to Year 6 children will be starting on Monday 5th September and children in nursery and reception will begin to attend school from Wednesday depending on their start date.

The new school looks fantastic and we can’t wait to se the children’s faces as they explore the new classrooms. The gates to the playground will open at 8.40am with the classroom doors opening at 8.50am. Staff will be on the playground to direct the children to their classes.

We are also really looking forward to the new Sunshine Room opening on Monday in the ground floor of the old school. Work has been carried out throughout the summer and we are delighted with the new classrooms.

As soon as we have all settled into the new school I will arrange for some tours of the new school for parents.

I would like to remind everyone that the school will be closed for training days on Friday 9th September and Monday 12th September for staff training days.

After arriving get in London at 2pm, the fun started immediately as we cruised down the Thames from Westminster to Tower Bridge gazing at sights such as The London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral, The Globe Theatre, The Shard and The Tower of London.

The tour continued on an open top bus to see Her Majesty at Buckingham Palace. We watched the guards marching in their busby hats in front of the main gate where the flag fluttered high indicating that The Queen was in residence.

Marching down The Mall with could hear the sound of The Royal Marines Band performing at Horse Guards Parade. We saluted Nelson in Trafalgar Square before walking down Whitehall and to Downing Street. What a day.

Let’s hope for a good night’s sleep so that the debate teams are ready for action in the morning.